Help With To-Do / Project List

[BusterBloodvessel]

Hi All,

I am, quite possibly, looking for a solution that doesn't exist here but you never know!

I am struggling more and more with managing my current projects/to-do list. To be honest it's now at the point where it is affecting my work because I start the day almost bewildered at where to begin. I end up doing smaller menial jobs or just dealing with emails and phone calls for that day but I never get chance to stand back and look at some of the bigger tasks, prioritise things, set a daily or weekly plan, etc...because I don't really know where everything is up to! I just react recently to whoever shouts loudest.

At any one time I can be involved with 50, 60, even towards 90 or 100 different projects and jobs. And when I say involved, these could be;

- Something that takes place over one or a few days then is complete (just me completing a few tasks. e.g. doing a pricing review for a customer and discussing with the sales team before implementing in the system)
- Something that's being put together over several months for launch in 6 or 9 or 12 months, e.g. developing a new product range and working with an internal team, plus external design & PR agencies and bringing it to launch developing all the required materials around it
- Some things are basically "parked" but they are ideas and projects that I want to come back to and don't want to get forgotten. E.g. today I was discussing a customer satisfaction survey with one of our sister companies, and when the Corona dust has settled I'd like to run the same. So for now I want to file all the emails about that away out of my inbox but I want it on my list as a reminder to review and pick up when convenient.


I used to operate on a system of "if it's in my inbox, it needs dealing with" then as tasks were completed I would file away. This is just completely unmanageable now with the number of emails I receive each day, plus discussions on the phone and increasingly Skype etc, it's not reliable for tracking things. Neither does it remind me that I emailed somebody 3 or 5 or 7 days ago and am waiting for them to get back to me.

I have tried just using an excel sheet, and adding in updates as I do them or at least at the end of each day e.g. "emailed latest proposal to MD, awaiting feedback"....but I find it all a bit clunky, it's not good for quickly looking at overdue dates (managed to fudge something using conditional formatting) and it's also not ideal for referencing things - e.g. dropping in a document for reference or an email that contains some important info etc.

I have tried Monday.com but that almost seems like it's trying to do too much...geared around teams and invites and collaboration and a lot of my work isn't like that. I almost feel like I want a basic dashboard with

- Project Title
- Status (e.g. ongoing/overdue/complete/on-hold)
- Due date
- Latest update
- Section for attachments/documents

Does such a thing possibly exist? Or have any of you any words of wisdom on how you effectively keep on top of things. I am all ears, because to be honest it's really getting me down. I am open to spending some time especially during the quiet of this lockdown to almost "start again" - get all projects that I can think of written down, try to set some priorities, look at a working plan.....but I would love any help or feedback on how to manage going forward and any advice from anyone else.

Phewww....sorry that was a long post!

 

[Financial-Modeller]

I am sure people will suggest apps etc, but if you actually have 60-100 'live' projects on, it is likely that you need to step back and review how you're operating / managing rather than what tools you intend to use.

Are the projects all adding value to you and/or your clients?
Are they all necessary and profitable?
Can you outsource or pass on those that are not 'core' and/or those that others can do more quickly / effectively than you can?
Can you delegate more work to others?

I recall a owner/manager of a company that provided testing services. He was always too busy, with business development, tenders, actual physical testing, and reporting findings to many clients.
He was writing almost-identical reports using Word, and manually building tables in a spreadsheet to show the results of testing, scenarios etc.
By developing a template in Excel and embedding the results into a Word template, he could produce the reports in minutes, not evenings, freeing up time to do more of the valuable work.

He had a crew testing on-site with him, but most of the work was unskilled labour, with very little time required for the skilled part of the testing process, so we reconfigured to two crews setting up work on site, and he visited two sites every day instead of one. Smarter, with more time with the client and less of his time spent hanging around on site and/or carrying materials around. He made more money too.

 

[Socio South West]

I agree with @Financial-Modeller - Besides thinking about apps you need to review your modus operandi and consider farming out some of your tasks.

A simpler version of Monday.com is Trello that many have used, but I agree with the OPs point that many apps try to make themselves too complicated, largely as the result of trying to satisfy too many customers in the race to become the next all conquering business app.

Have you considered a PA/VA person to help you prioritize and schedule @BusterBloodvessel ? Using a couple of simple inexpensive apps eg Trello and Slack between you could see your workflow improve its smoothness considerably for not too great an expense.

 

[Stas Lawicki]

Trello is simple enough but a new crm takes time to get used to and adds another layer of work in the meantime.

My questions would be:

Are you taking on more than one person can handle and should you be off loading it to others?

Do I care enough about what I am doing and could the problem be that I dont/ my priorities have changed/ or I am overwhelmed and lost interest?

Is the work you do ever enjoyable?

It might be a simple case of taking on too much and needing to prioritise. It could be your heary is no longer in it and you have accepted that yet.

 

[jts]

I too find that apps are either too simple or too complex – and anything done in a spreadsheet normally turns out a mess. I am quite liking Hitask though – give it a go.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Thanks to all that replied and offered suggestions. Sorry I've been so slow to acknowledge....ironically, I've been too busy It's only the last couple of days I've started to try some of the suggested sites/programs above.

I am sure people will suggest apps etc, but if you actually have 60-100 'live' projects on, it is likely that you need to step back and review how you're operating / managing rather than what tools you intend to use.

Are the projects all adding value to you and/or your clients?
Are they all necessary and profitable?
Can you outsource or pass on those that are not 'core' and/or those that others can do more quickly / effectively than you can?
Can you delegate more work to others?

They are all required, or certainly, wanted at some point. Certainly your last two points regarding passing on & delegating are absolutely what I need to do. I think the struggle I've found myself with is that I've got so deep in the mire with things I don't know where to look or start, to start delegating...if that makes sense!

I agree with @Financial-Modeller -
Have you considered a PA/VA person to help you prioritize and schedule @BusterBloodvessel ? Using a couple of simple inexpensive apps eg Trello and Slack between you could see your workflow improve its smoothness considerably for not too great an expense.

This relates to my day job and I already expect to have problems getting them to sign off on some tasks/project management software such as the ones mentioned here, let alone on a P.A. unfortunately

Do I care enough about what I am doing and could the problem be that I dont/ my priorities have changed/ or I am overwhelmed and lost interest?

Is the work you do ever enjoyable?

It might be a simple case of taking on too much and needing to prioritise. It could be your heary is no longer in it and you have accepted that yet.

This is, undoubtedly, also one of the issues. We have been through major changes at our employers with buying multiple companies, hurried mergers, closures of departments, I personally feel like I have been demoted from my position and I'm completely demotivated with the whole thing. In one way that probably hasn't helped because I'm no longer prepared to put in the 14 and 16 hour days that I once did, nor do I have the focus I once had, and that has let things slip behind.

I too find that apps are either too simple or too complex – and anything done in a spreadsheet normally turns out a mess. I am quite liking Hitask though – give it a go.

Thanks @jts , actually I've had a trial with all the suggestions above and Hitask seems to be the one for me, at least so far. I've started setting up various projects in there, and adding in important individual tasks below. Just being able to quickly add a note under each one I think will be really useful and just what I was after (just adding with a date e.g. '30/04 - Emailed customer with latest suggested design revisions; awaiting feedback). That's what I need to have a refresher where I'm up to and/or deliver a project update to the directors. I am then using a project for "Marketing Assistant Jobs" and adding in small tasks that I give to the assistant in there to keep an eye on them. Once I've got more up and running with it I will look at using the assign feature and setting up projects/tasks properly for her. But so far it seems pretty good - the only thing I'm missing (unless I'm being thick) is that you cannot assign a priority to a project, only to the individual tasks within? I'm allocating them a coloured folder (red/high, amber/medium, green/low) but that info doesn't export to Excel which I will use for sending off updates.


Thanks again for everyones comments

 

[jts]

Glad that Hitask is proving useful! I didn’t think you could prioritise projects themselves but it turnes out you can: On the Projects tab, set the Priority dropdown to “Priority” (mine was alphabetical) then you can drag and drop the projects to set the order.

This doesn't sound like the sort of thing that will export to Excel, though. I suppose you could use the “Client” field to make up some priorities?

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Glad that Hitask is proving useful! I didn’t think you could prioritise projects themselves but it turnes out you can: On the Projects tab, set the Priority dropdown to “Priority” (mine was alphabetical) then you can drag and drop the projects to set the order.

This doesn't sound like the sort of thing that will export to Excel, though. I suppose you could use the “Client” field to make up some priorities?

Looked into that but the client field doesn't export either, or not where you'd expect. I've also found that the exports to excel seem to export in a pretty random way. All the lines of data are in a strange order, there seems no rhyme or reason to it. Then "notes" will export and show the correct info under the "project' column, i.e. which project they belong to. But then "projects" will export showing the client info under the 'project' column which all seems very odd.